


Bring (Baby) Me Back

by snarkytrickstergod



Category: All Time Low
Genre: Fluff and Crack, Gen, I don't even know how to tag this, M/M, This is just plain weird, jalex will come eventually
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-15
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-05-20 18:58:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6021252
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snarkytrickstergod/pseuds/snarkytrickstergod
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>When Jack ate that burrito, no one was expecting for things to get this... weird.</i>
</p><p>A strange man gives Jack a burrito that turns him into a baby, leaving Alex, Zack and Rian to take care of him and try to find a way to bring his friend back to normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is what happens when me and a friend of mine are on Tumblr at night and we see a baby Jack fanart.
> 
> I honestly don't know where I'm going with this. I'll try to complete this anyway.

When Jack ate that burrito, no one was expecting for things to get this... weird.

It started like a normal day. The guys were hanging out, everyone was laughing and chatting, just having a good time.  
And then Jack announced that he was hungry.

"Dude, you literally ate an hour ago, how can you be hungry?" Rian asked, and Jack shrugged.

"I don't know, I just am."

"Well, let's find something to eat before the princess here becomes grumpy." Alex joked, and everyone laughed as Jack pouted.

They were walking to the nearest Taco Bell (’cause Jack was craving a burrito) when Zack bumped into a strange-looking man.

“Oh, sorry man.” Zack said, but the man seemed to ignore him, focused on Jack.

“Hey kiddo.” he said with a seductive tone of voice, which made Jack hide behind Alex, scared. “I heard you were hungry. Fancy a burrito?”

“We’re not interested, thanks.” Alex affirmed, suspicious of the man. “Let’s go guys, we’re not too far from Taco Bell.”

They arrived the fast food joint not much later, and immediately ordered their food. Jack had a strange look on his face and was unusually quiet. The guys deduced it was because of the strange encounter.

As they were walking back to Alex’s apartment, Zack noticed Jack was eating something, and asked what it was.

“Uh, nothing...”

Alex turned around, brows furrowed.

“Jack, what do you have in there? Is that what I think it is?”

Jack swallowed hard, and slowly showed the half eaten burrito on his hand.

Alex took it from his hand and threw it to the ground, angry.

“Jack what the fuck were you thinking? How could you accept that guy’s food, have you never heard to never take something from a stranger?”

Jack shook slightly at the yelling. He had never seen Alex so angry before, especially not at him.

“A- Alex, calm down. It’s just a burrito, it’s not anything bad. What could happen?”

“What could happen?! Dude, you could have been poisoned by that stuff! You know what, we’re going to the hospital, to make sure you don’t die because of your stupidity.”

To everyone’s surprise, Rian was the one to convince Alex not to go to the hospital.

“Alex, hold on. If Jack is feeling alright, there’s no reason to go to the hospital. Let’s just wait, if he doesn’t show any symptoms after a day then nothing’s wrong.”

Alex glared at Rian for a moment, and then at Jack before taking a deep breath.

“Fine, we’re going back home then. But I swear to god, if Jack gets sick, I-”

“We know, we know.” Rian interrupted, walking in the direction of Alex’s house. “Now let’s go, I’m getting cold.”

They headed towards the house after a moment.  
Jack went to Zack’s side, his hands buried down his pockets and head low. He knew he screwed up big time, but Alex’s shouting scared him, so he avoided looking at him.

Alex looked at him, feeling bad. He didn’t like shouting at Jack, but he was worried about him, he didn’t want Jack to get hurt.  
He walked to Jack’s side, smiling. 

“Hey,” he said in a soft tone, “sorry for screaming at you earlier, but you shouldn’t have done that. What were you thinking, that could have gone wrong.”

“I know, sorry. I was just really hungry, and I saw that burrito and couldn’t control myself.”

Alex slid an arm around Jack’s back. “Just don’t do that again, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Jack nodded, smiling slightly, and Alex tightened his grip as they got closer to his house.

* * *

 

Back at Alex’s house, things were going as normal. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about Jack’s incident and was having fun in their own ways.

And suddenly, when everyone was watching a video, Jack whined in pain.  
Alex looked at him instantly, worried.

“What’s wrong Jack? Are you okay?”

“No, I… I don’t feel good. I feel really weird.”

“We better go to the hospital, come on.” Alex replied, helping Jack get up.

But they didn’t go far, because Jack growled and ran straight to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

The guys ran after him, knocking at the door.

“Jack! Jack, answer, are you alright?” Rian shouted.

Alex was panicking, pacing around behind them. He knew he should have brought Jack to the hospital right away, he was so stupid for not doing it!

Minutes passed, and no sound was coming from inside, which was deeply worrying the guys.  
Alex pushed Zack and Rian to the side and opened the door in a rush, entering the bathroom.

The trio stopped in their tracks as soon as they came in, completely shocked.

Jack was nowhere to be seen, and his clothes were dumped on the ground. It looked like he had vanished in thin air and left his clothes behind.

“What the fuck…” Alex muttered, carefully walking to the clothes. Rian followed close behind.

And then they heard it.

A cry.

“It’s coming from… the clothes?” Zack asked, more confused than scared.

Alex nodded, kneeling in front of the dump and moving the clothes away.

And right in the middle of them, there was a small baby, completely naked. His big brown eyes and the strange blonde tuff on his black hair, as well as how he seemed to calm down as soon as Alex picked him up, made the dumbfounded trio recognize the baby right away.

“Jack?!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really weird, but I like the idea of the guys babysitting his now baby friend.
> 
> Anyway, tell me what you think, bla bla bla.  
> Comments are welcome!


	2. Chapter 2

“What in the world…” Rian trailed off, still too shocked to talk.

“How did this happen?” Zack asked, looking at the baby pressed against Alex’s chest. “Jack can’t spontaneously turn into a baby.”

“It’s a prank. It’s the only reasonable option, Jack is pranking us.” Rian mumbled, and Alex shook his head.

“It’s not a prank.” He said, getting out of the bathroom. “We’ve all seen photos of Jack when he was a baby, this is him. Somehow he was turned into a baby and I’m gonna find out who did it.”

Alex put baby Jack on the couch, telling the guys to look after him while he was going to find a blanket, and disappeared to his room.

Losing sight of Alex, Jack started whimpering and then crying, and neither Zack nor Rian could calm him down, no matter what they did.

“Holy shit, little Jack sure has a pair of powerful lungs!” Rian exclaimed, covering his ears.

Zack slapped his arm. “Dude, language! You can’t swear in front of a baby!”

Rian gave Zack a weird look. “Zack, it’s Jack who we’re talking about. The guy swears more than both of us combined!”

“I don’t care; he’s a baby now, so no swearing!”

“Whatever, how do we shut him up?”

They looked at Jack, who was crying even louder now, slightly panicked.   
How were they supposed to take care of him, they had never had a baby before!

Alex appeared in that moment, wincing at the loud noise.

“Jesus Christ, why is he crying?”

“We don’t know! He started crying when you went to your room!”

Alex walked to the couch, blanket in hand.  
As soon as he got on Jack’s eyesight, his crying stopped instantly, and he started giggling, reaching his little hands to Alex.

Rian and Zack looked at the scene completely dumbfounded. _What the hell just happened?_

Alex wrapped Jack in the blanket in a way that only his head was showing, ‘causing Rian to jokingly call him a “wrapped burrito.”

“What did you just say?” Alex exclaimed, eyes wide. Before anyone could reply, he continued: “That’s it! That’s what turned Jack into a baby, that burrito the strange man gave him!”

“Alex, how the f- how the hell can a burrito do that?” Rian asked, skeptical.

“Well, it’s an option. We don’t know what that man did to the burrito before he gave it to Jack.” Zack replied.

“I don’t know, it sounds way too weird…”

“Ri, everything in this is weird!” Alex exclaimed. “We have to find that man. But how will we do that?”

“We’ll think about that later. Right now we have to take care of Jack.” Zack said, looking at the baby. “We need clothes, diapers, all that stuff.”

“I’ll go buy them. The store is not too far away from here.” Alex replied, taking his keys.

“Oh no you aren’t.” Rian exclaimed, grabbing Alex’s arm. “You’ll stay right here with Jack.”

“Yeah, baby Jack is just as clingy to you as his grown up version.”

Alex blushed, tossing the keys to Rian before sitting on the couch.

Rian smiled, picking his wallet before walking out the door. Alex sighed, watching Zack play with Jack.

“Do you think we’ll be able to bring him back to normal?”

“We have to.”

* * *

 

Rian came back half an hour later, carrying a handful of bags. Alex and Zack helped him take everything inside, dumbfounded.

“Dude, this is way too much!” Alex exclaimed, looking at the bags.

“How did you pay for all of this anyway?”

Rian smirked, taking a card from his pocket.

“I used Jack’s credit card.” His friends gave him a weird look. “What? It’s for him, he pays for it!”

“Rian, remember me to never let you babysit my child if I ever have one.” Alex chuckled, taking things off the bags.

“Ditto.” Zack replied, laughing at Rian’s confused expression.

Alex took a diaper from the bag and some clothes, and gently picked Jack up and put him on the table.  
Rian and Zack walked to the other side of the table, watching the scene while muttering to each other.

He was about to put the diaper on Jack when he suddenly whimpered and started peeing, right into Alex’s shirt.  
Alex staggered back instantly, looking at his shirt mildly disgusted.

“Oh, come on!”

The baby started giggling, clapping his hands. Zack and Rian were laughing uncontrollably, hands on the table to steady themselves.

“You think this is funny?” Alex asked, irritated.

“Yeah, it- it’s really funny!” Rian cracked, trying to calm down.

“Then you can do it yourselves, I’m done!” He exclaimed, and then turned to Jack. “And you, you little bastard, you’re gonna pay for this when you come back to normal!”

Alex tried to sound angry, he really did, but how can you do it when you have the cutest baby giggling at you?  
So he walked to his bedroom to change his shirt before anyone could see his growing smile.

Rian and Zack rounded the table, and Rian put the diaper on Jack, smiling.

“Now you really messed things up, uh buddy?”

“Pray that Alex won’t kill you when you get back to your normal self.” Zack replied.

* * *

 

The afternoon passed quite fast as the guys took care of the little troublemaker that was his friend now.

Alex tried to stay away from him, since he was still annoyed with the peeing thing, but he soon found out he couldn’t as Jack insisted on crawling to him, giggling and wanting to play with him.

Rian and Zack watched them with a smile. It was an adorable scene, they had to admit.

When night fell, they said goodbye to Alex and went to their respective houses, leaving Alex alone with his infant friend.

“It’s getting late now, isn’t it buddy?” he said to Jack, who was half asleep on his arms. “Where are you going to sleep?”

Jack made a noise and grabbed Alex’s shirt, making him smile.

“You wanna sleep with me? Well, we don’t really have an option, do we?”

He walked to his bedroom and carefully laid the baby on the bed, laying down next to him, pulling the covers.  
He watched him fast asleep, smiling sweetly. Maybe his friend getting turned into a baby wasn’t such a bad thing.

“Good night, little guy.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This doesn't make any sense. But it was cute, so okay.
> 
> Tell me what you think, all that stuff.  
> Comments are welcome!


	3. Chapter 3

When the guys arrived at Alex’s apartment the next morning, he was feeding baby Jack some baby food.

“Good morning!” Rian cheerfully exclaimed. “How’s your new life as a father going?”

“Haha, very funny.” Alex said, rolling his eyes. “It’s going well, actually. Jack is a calm baby, that when he’s not busy scaring the living shit out of me, that is.”

Zack muttered “Language” under his breath, and continued louder: “What happened?”

“I was on the kitchen making breakfast earlier, and when I realized it Jack was nowhere to be seen. I freaked out and called him, but I got no answer. Ten minutes later I found him, playing with my guitar.”

Rian chuckled, ruffling Jack’s hair. “Maybe we should put a rattle on him so we know where he is all the time.”

As if he had understood Rian, Jack made a scandalized face, making everyone laugh.

Alex finished feeding Jack while Rian and Zack sat on the couch, chatting.

“What are we gonna do today?” Rian asked Alex, who was gently rocking the baby.

“We’re going out. We need to find the man who turned Jack into a baby, and we’re not gonna do it sitting at home.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Zack replied. “Where do we start?”

They were interrupted by a big burp coming from Jack that made the guys snicker.

“Good to see some things never change.” Rian snorted.

“Anyway,” Alex continued, trying to shuffle his giggles, “we’re gonna start on the same street we first saw him. Lemme just change Jack’s clothes and we can go.”

“Wait, he’s coming with us?”

“No, I’m gonna leave him alone on the house. Of course he’s coming with us!”

“And how exactly are you planning on taking him? We don’t have a stroller.”

Alex froze as he realized his friend was right. _Great, now what do we do?_

Zack gave the answer, smirking.

“Oh, I have an idea.”

* * *

 

“Really, Zack? This?”

They were back on the street they first saw the stranger on, looking around. Alex was wearing one of those baby pouches on his torso, Zack’s idea.

“What? It was the only option you had!”

“I look ridiculous…” Alex pouted.

Rian rolled his eyes. “No you don’t, shut up.”

Soon the weird group drew attention from the people passing by, who were mostly enchanted by baby Jack.

“Oh, he’s so adorable!” they exclaimed. “Is he your son?”

“No, he’s my best friend who was turned into a baby.” Alex deadpanned every single time.

Generally, he would receive three reactions to his reply. First, the people who gave him a weird look and walked away. Second, the ones who thought he was joking and laughed, only to also give him a weird look when they found out he wasn’t kidding. And third, the ones who were offended and insulted him before walking away.

Jack found the last one to be especially hilarious, and laughed every time Alex was insulted in any way.

Alex sighed; the things he had to go through for his best friend…

After two hours of walking in circles, the group was ready to give up and go home.  
But suddenly Rian stopped, looking at a crowd.

“I see him.”

Alex and Zack immediately looked in that direction, at first not seeing anything in the mess of people.  
But then they saw him, wearing some weird bright clothes. He was giving something wrapped to a woman, and they were sure it was a burrito.

They walked to him, faking an educated smile.

“Steve, long time no see!” Rian exclaimed, hugging the confused man. Alex and Zack stood on either side of him, leaving no room to escape.

“How about we go for a little walk?” Alex asked, and the man knew it wasn’t a request.

He smirked, playing along. “Sure, it’ll be fun to remember the good old times!”

They walked to a narrow alley, and after making sure no one was watching, Rian pinned the stranger against the wall.

“Okay, speak. What did you do to Jack?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude.”

“You don’t know.” Alex repeated, angrily chuckling. “Then let me refresh your memory. You walked to us yesterday and offered Jack a burrito that he ate and turned him into a baby. Remember that?”

The man had the cold blood to grin. “Oh yeah, I remember. It was a nice spell.”

Rian had to control himself not to punch this pretentious asshole in the face. Alex felt the same way, but was having more trouble to control himself.

Zack was the one who fully recorded what the man said.

“Wait, a spell? What the hell are you talking about?”

“It’s what I do! You know, in this modern world you don’t have much ways to practice your spells without drawing attention on you, so I do these things.”

“What, you put spells on burritos and then you give them?”

“Sort of. It’s not only burritos, it can be any food. On your friend’s case, I used a burrito ‘cause it was the thing he was craving the most.”

Jack whimpered, drawing the stranger’s attention.

“Aw, what a cute baby your friend is! Guess I found the perfect spell for him!”

“You son of a…” Alex growled, trying to run to the man but being held by Zack, who was starting to get worried.

“Dude, we don’t want to do anything to you. We’re just asking you to turn Jack back to his normal self, just that.”

The stranger looked at each man individually, and then sighed.

“Guys, I really want to do that. Seriously, you seem like nice guys, I shouldn’t have messed with you. But that’s the problem; that spell can’t be turned back. It’s permanent, the moment he ate that burrito the spell was permanently activated.”

There was silence for a minute, letting it sink in.

“…You’re saying Jack is going to be a baby for the rest of his life?” Alex muttered.

“Yes, basically. I’m sorry man, I didn’t-”

He was interrupted by Alex’s fist colliding with his face, and fell to the ground with his hand on his nose.

“You’re gonna pay for this, you fucking bastard!” Alex screamed, walking out of the alley in a rush.

Zack and Rian followed after a moment of hesitation; when Alex is this pissed off, it’s better to leave him alone.

“Do you think he was telling the truth?” Zack muttered, and Rian shook his head.

“I don’t want to believe him, but why would he lie? He has no reason to. And besides we know literally nothing about spells.”

The duo walked slowly behind Alex, who was muttering to himself. Or to Jack, it was hard to know since they couldn’t hear him.

“We have to do something. Jack can’t stay like this forever, we have to turn him back.”

“How?”

Zack looked down, defeated. He had no idea how to do it, and he hated it, he wanted to help his best friend.

Rian glanced at Zack, hating to see him so down, and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“Hey, we’ll bring him back to normal, okay? We’ll find a way.”

* * *

 

Back at the house, everything was silent. No one spoke because no one knew what to say, no one could think of any idea to help fix this situation.

Alex had gone back to his room immediately after getting home, leaving Jack with his friends.  
He needed to be alone, he was so pissed off he felt like he could snap if he wasn’t alone in his bedroom.

He should have prevented that, he shouldn’t have taken his eyes off Jack after they met that weirdo, if he did they wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

Jack wasn’t feeling good either; after the man said that he turned completely silent, he didn’t laugh, didn’t cry, nothing at all.  
Alex had realized that Jack still understood everything that was said, he just couldn’t speak. He knew Jack felt responsible for this situation, and he couldn’t really blame him; if it had happened to him he’d feel the exact same way.

He didn’t exactly knew how, but at one point Alex picked up his acoustic guitar and just played random notes, not really thinking about it.

He didn’t notice Jack sitting on the rug at the front of the bed, listening to him in silence.  
He had managed to escape Rian and Zack’s vigilance and crawled to the bedroom, wanting to be near Alex.

Two hours passed before Alex got too tired to continue, and he got up to put the guitar on its place.

And that’s when he noticed Jack on the rug, curled up and sleeping with a finger in his mouth.  
He sighed and carefully picked him up, putting him on his bed and placing a warm blanket on top of him.

When he went to the living room, wondering why Rian and Zack didn’t notice Jack missing, he found them asleep on the couch, Zack with his head pressed on Rian’s shoulder and Rian’s arm loosely wrapped around his back.

Alex smiled, watching them; he was sure they didn’t have any sleep last night, too worried about his best friend.

“Well, I’m not waking them up, they need the rest.” Alex muttered to himself. “They look pretty adorable like that, too.”

He put a blanket over them and turned the tv off, turning the apartment in complete silence.  

“Sleep well, guys.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I ended up throwing a little bit of Zian in the end. What can I say, they're a cute ship.
> 
> Tell me what you think, bla bla bla.  
> Comments are welcome!


	4. Chapter 4

_Same day, 4 p.m._

Rian and Zack woke up to the sound of their friend excited shouts.

“Yes! Come on, you can do it!”

Zack sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning. Rian stretched a little, still laying down.

“What is Alex doing?” Zack muttered.

Rian shrugged. “I don’t know, most probably he’s watching soccer or something.”

He watched Zack stretch in the tight space he was in, smiling at his disheveled hair and sleepy eyes. He looked absolutely adorable when he was trying to stay awake.

Zack noticed Rian looking at him and gave him a shy smile.

“What?”

Rian stuttered, blushing. “Nothing, I just…”

The sudden yell heard from the kitchen drew their attention to Alex.

“Alex, what the fuck are you doing?” Rian shouted, sitting down on the couch.

“Oh, hey sleeping beauties!” Alex exclaimed, jogging to the couch. “Had a nice sleep? You looked adorable sleeping, by the way.”

“Yeah, whatever. Why are you screaming like mad, it sounds like someone’s trying to kill you!”

Alex prompted himself down on the couch, grinning.

“Well, since the guy said Jack was gonna stay like that for the rest of his life – I still don’t believe that, but yeah –, I managed to make him walk on his own!”

Rian and Zack looked at each other and snorted, while Alex glared at them, confused.

“You’re turning more and more into a mama bear, Gaskarth.” Zack laughed.

“Oh, shut up.”

Jack appeared a moment later, sloppily walking and babbling something only he could understand.  
Rian picked him up and sat him next to Alex. Jack crawled to his lap and cuddled on his chest, giggling.

“Man, I’m pretty sure that level of clinginess isn’t healthy.” Rian mused, watching his baby friend.

“It’s like he got two times clingier after he was turn into a baby.” Zack replied.

Alex looked at them and laughed.

“Oh shut up, you’re just jealous he pays more attention to me.”

Rian snickered. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that.”

Jack suddenly cried out, pointing excitedly to the window and babbling.   
The trio stared at it instantly, wondering what his friend meant.

A white blanket covered everything outside, and there was a lot of kids throwing snow at each other and making snow angels.

“Oh my god, it’s snowing!” Alex exclaimed, jumping off the couch and running to his bedroom with Jack on his arms.

He came back five minutes later, both him and Jack fully clothed and prepared to go play in the snow.

Rian glanced at both boys and then at Zack.

“Should we go with them?”

“Well, someone has to look for the two babies.” Zack smiled, getting up and putting his jacket and gloves on.

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, Zack and Rian were standing next to a tree, watching Alex and Jack play in the snow.  
Zack didn’t want to play with them, so he just stayed there and looked after them, making sure they don’t get hurt or in trouble. As for Rian, well, he didn’t want Zack to be alone there, so he joined him on the babysitting.

But he was dying to get in a snowball fight, so it didn’t take long before he ended up throwing a snowball at Zack, hitting him in the back of the head.  

Zack turned around, shifting his eyes, and before Rian knew it his face was full of white fluff.

A fight started in that moment, snowballs flying in the air, hitting both boys most of the time.  
Rian was having trouble aiming his snowballs; most probably because he kept getting distracted by Zack’s adorable laugh.

The battle ended with Rian tickling Zack and trying to shove snow down his shirt.  
Zack was giggling like a little kid, trying to keep Rian away and failing.

He ended up tripping on a rock while he was walking backwards, and grabbed Rian’s jacket as he fell, bringing him down with him.

They fell on the snow with a soft “thump”, Rian on top of Zack.

Rian groaned and tried to get up, but he froze when he felt Zack’s hands on his waist, softly holding him in place.

He swallowed hard and looked up, catching his friend’s smile as he sweetly looked at him.

Rian hesitantly leaned down, his eyes closing just as their lips were about to touch…

“Rian! Zack! Where are you?”

Alex was shouting, looking for his friends as they seemed to disappear.

Rian cursed under his breath and got up, shrugging the snow off his jacket. Zack sat up, looking at Rian slightly confused.

Alex walked to them with Jack on his lap, stopping as he realized something wasn’t right.

“Is everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” Rian grunted, frustrated. “I’m going inside, it’s getting too cold.”

They watched him walk away, confused.  
Alex stared at Zack, hoping he could explain what had happened.

“I, uh… I better get inside too.” He stuttered, rushing to the door, leaving Alex alone outside.

He stood there for a moment, stunned, before he looked down to Jack.

“I think Rian and Zack have a crush on each other…”

Jack gave him a look that clearly read “no shit”, and Alex scoffed.

“Oh, shut up, it’s not like that was obvious!”

* * *

 

Inside the apartment, the ambient was a bit awkward.

Rian had ran inside, completely embarrassed with had just happened outside. What the fuck was he even thinking when he almost kissed Zack?

The aforementioned boy entered in that moment, and Rian faked his best innocent look as he started making hot chocolate.

Zack was looking at him with a confused expression, and when he tried to talk to Rian about that moment he just pretended nothing had happened.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Zee, we just had a snowball fight and fell.” Rian shrugged, giving him his best smile.

Zack knew him enough to know he was faking it; for some reason he didn’t want to talk about it, and he didn’t insist, after all he wasn’t sure of what happened there either.

Alex and Jack entered some minutes later, both grinning as they accepted the hot drink Rian was offering.  
They stayed there for a while, Alex helping Jack drink with a straw while Rian and Zack watched with a find smile.

They decided to watch TV for a while, since there was nothing better to do. They all sat in the couch except for Jack, who sat at Alex’s lap as usual.  
Alex noticed how Rian and Zack were sitting with a certain distance between them, and tried to hide his smile; he definitely needed to talk to Rian when they were alone.

Sometime later they ended up getting distracted from the movie, instead chatting and laughing.

And that’s when things changed.

When Jack started laughing, no one really paid attention to it; everyone was laughing, so it was normal.  
But when Alex decided to look at the TV his face went pale.

A sex scene was playing, and while it wasn’t anything explicit it was enough to make Alex freak out and enter full mama bear mode.

He got up with Jack on his arms, running to the baby’s playground while exclaiming something about him being too young to watch those scenes and that he needed to put him somewhere safe.

Rian and Zack looked at his friend, completely incredulous, and tried to muffle their laughs.

“I think Alex forgot Jack is just a baby outside, his mind is still the same.” Zack muttered, leaning to Rian’s side.

Rian wrapped his arm around his shoulders without thinking, snorting.

“And he calls me the mother of the band. Unbelievable.”

Alex put Jack on the playground, and groaned loudly when he realized Jack could still watch the scene.  
Rian and Zack laughed, and the drummer calmly picked the remote and switched channels.

Alex sighed, falling on the couch with his legs on Rian’s lap.

“I think you went overboard on this one, Alex.” Zack laughed.

“I know… I guess I’m becoming a bit too protective of Jack, uh?”

“You are. Just chill Lex, Jack isn’t a baby! I mean, not inside at least.” Rian said, and blushed when Zack pressed his head against his shoulder.

A phone suddenly ringed, and Alex got up to pick it, frowning when he didn’t recognize the number.

“Hello?”

“Hey Alex, it’s me. The witch.”

“What the fuck do you want?!” he growled, anger growing as he remembered it was his fault Jack was like that.

“Calm down! We need to talk, okay? I think I found something about the spell I put on your friend, something that you might be interested in.”

“What is it?”

“I’m not talking over the phone. Meet me in the alley where you guys trapped me in yesterday.”

Alex hesitated before nodding. “Fine. Meet you in ten.”

He walked to the couch, brows furrowed.

“Hey, can you take care of Jack for a bit? I have to go out.”

“At this time of the night? Where are you going?” Rian asked, worried.

“I have to take care of something, I won’t take long.” He said, putting his jacket on. He wasn’t entirely sure of the truth of that affirmation, but he wasn’t going to let his friends know.

Jack whimpered, not liking the idea of staying away from Alex, and made grabby hands when he walked to him.

“I’ll only stay away for a bit, ‘kay buddy? Rian and Zack are taking care of you, don’t worry!” he exclaimed, ruffling his friend’s hair.

Jack crossed his arms and huffed, frustrated, and whined when Alex walked out of the door.

The house fell in silence for a moment, before Rian spoke.

“I don’t like the sound of this. Not one bit.”

And he had reasons to, because Alex didn’t come back home that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I ended up going a bit overboard with Zian on this one, didn't I? Whoops!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ayyyyyeeeee I'm back! I'm so sorry it took me literally five months to update this, I got stuck and didn't know how to continue this! I hope you like this chapter!   
> And I promise I'll ease up on the zian, I know I went too far on it the last one! Anyway, just enjoy it!

_The next morning..._   
  
When Rian heard the key on the front door, he immediately ran to the hall, not even giving Alex time to close the door before attacking him with questions.   
  
"Where the hell were you, I was so worried! You didn't answer the phone, I thought you were in danger or something!"   
  
"Calm down, I'm fine. I went to meet that witch and-"    
  
"You did what?! You went to meet that psycho on your own? What the hell were you thinking, he could have killed you!"   
  
Alex rolled his eyes at his friend's overreaction.   
  
"Oh stop being such a worried mother, Rian! I'm fine, he didn't do anything to me, and I've got some great news."   
  
"Don't call me that!" Rian exclaimed, following him to the living room. "And what are those news?"   
  
"Well we found out the spell-"   
  
"Alex!"   
  
The boy turned to the direction of the calling and froze, incredulously watching Jack sloppily run to him with a huge smile on his face.   
The baby grabbed his leg, still repeating his friend's name in excitement for him to be home. 

Alex blinked repeatedly, not quite registering that he was actually talking. And more importantly, saying his name.   
  
"Oh my god. He- he talks now?"   
  
"No, he only says your name." Zack said, appearing from the guest room. "He started repeating it an hour after you left and didn't shut up, he just wanted to see you."   
  
Alex picked baby Jack up, who instantly wrapped his arms around his neck and repeated his name in a softer way, clearly happy to be in his arms again.   
He grinned, eyes tearing up a bit as he held his friend close.   
  
"Now this is a nice surprise."   
  
"You two are so adorable, you know? Clearly made for each other." Rian teased with a smile. "Can't wait for Jack to come back to normal so you can finally 'take care' of him."   
  
"Oh fuck off, Ri."   
  
Zack sat on the couch's arm with a worried expression.   
  
"You do know Jack is not coming back to normal, right? The witch said that."   
  
Rian lost his smile on the moment but Alex only grinned.   
  
"About that... That's not entirely true. The spell is only temporary on his case."   
  
"What?!"   
  
"How do you know that?!"   
  
"Well, I met the witch and-" Zack interrupted him, dumbfounded by his recklessness. "You went on your own to find that person? Are you crazy, you should have gone with one of us in case things got dangerous!"   
  
"That's exactly what I said!"   
  
"Oh can it you two?!" Alex half shouted to shut them up. "Just let me tell what happened!" 

* * *

  
  
_Alex hesitantly walked to the alley, wondering if he really was doing the right thing in accepting his invitation._   
_When he got halfway inside he saw him, leaning on the wall with a cigarette in his mouth._   
_"Okay, spill. What did you find out about the spell?"_   
  
_His voice was aggressive; he still hated that man and would gladly beat him up for what he did to his best friend._   
_The witch calmly finished his cigarette and talked as he threw it to the ground._   
  
_"I think it's better to go to my house to talk. I don't wanna be caught here talking about spells."_   
  
_This time Alex refused, keeping him against the wall with one arm._   
  
_"We're not going anywhere, you bastard. Just tell me what the fuck did you find about that spell!"_   
  
_"Whoa, calm down dude! Fine, I'll tell you." he paused before continuing. "I went through my spell book and found somehing about the baby spell."_   
  
_As he didn't say more, Alex shook him up and growled his question._   
  
_"And what?"_   
  
_"I found out that the spell is only permanent when you eat the whole recipient of it. In your friend's case, if he didn't eat the whole burrito, then he'll come back to normal after some time."_   
  
_The boy sighed in relief, closing his eyes. Thank God I threw the rest of the burrito to the ground._   
_Still, he didn't lose his grip on the man, a doubt hurting him._   
  
_"How do I know you're not lying?"_   
  
_The witch rolled his eyes. "If you had came with me to my house I could have showed you the book."_   
  
_"You're a witch, can't you make the book pop up in your hand or something?"_   
  
_The man stared at Alex for a while, an unamused expression on his face._   
_And then he snapped his fingers and the book appeared on his hand with a little smoke cloud. Alex staggered back with the shock._   
  
_"You're lucky I can."_   
  
_He opened the book and searched for the right page for a few moments, and then showed it to him._   
_Alex read the whole page, his smile growing every minute. He was so relieved, now that he knew Jack wasn't gonna be a baby for the rest of his life he could rest._   
  
_"It doesn't say when it passes here."_   
  
_"It depends on how much of the recipient he ingested. It can get off after some days, weeks or even months."_   
  
_"Well, I don't care. What matters is that Jack is coming back to normal." he finally smiled to the man. "Thanks."_   
  
_"No problem. And I'm sorry I did this to your friend, I really didn't mean to cause you all this trouble."_   
  


* * *

  
  
"So Jack is coming back to normal in a few months max?" Rian asked, still skeptical.   
  
"Yeah! I'm really relieved, I like the baby version but I don't think I'd be able to deal with it for the rest of my life!"   
  
Alex was grinning, running his hand on baby Jack's back while he talked, and the two boys didn't miss the affection in his actions.   
  
"Oh, I think you'd do a great job." Zack smiled, continuing before he could reply. "I agree though, I miss the original Jack, as annoying as he can be."   
  
Alex yawned suddenly, and rubbed his eyes.   
  
"Well, I'm going to sleep, I'm tired as hell." he looked down to his friend, who was fast asleep on his chest. "I think we both are."   
  
"Oh he definitely is, after spending the whole night awake and not letting anyone sleep!"

"You wanna sleep here? I've got the guest room and couch available. Or you could both sleep in the bed, I don't mind it."   
  
It was obvious what Alex was hinting to, and Rian flicked him off before walking to the front door, saying he had stuff to do before leaving.   
Zack accepted the offer and went to the room right away with a yawn.   
  
"Let's go to sleep too."   
  
Alex laid down in the bed, watching baby Jack sleep as usual. His mind went back to the memory of his meet with the witch, to a part he didn't tell his friends for obvious reasons. 

* * *

  
  
_"You love him, don't you?"_   
  
_Alex was walking away but stopped, just standing there without turning back._   
  
_"You do, even a blind person could see it. No wonder you're so protective of him or why you hate me, I messed with him."_   
  
_"I don't love him in that way, you're wrong."_   
  
_"I'm rarely wrong." the man appeared in front of Alex suddenly, making him step back. "Believe me dude, the moment you admit it to yourself things get easier. I hope that when your friend comes back to normal you do something about it."_   
  
_"Yeah, whatever."_

* * *

  
  
Alex slowly came back to real life, still thinking about that moment.

He wasn't sure if the witch was right or not. These last few days were a mess and he didn't have time to think clearly yet.   
It is true that his affection for Jack grew in these days, especially because he just wouldn't leave him alone, but from there to call it love it goes a long way.   
  
He sighed deeply, tired. He needed some sleep, thinking about this was too tiring right now.

  
"I think I'm starting to like you more than I should, buddy. And I'm not really sure of what to think of it." he whispered, closing his eyes and falling asleep a minute later.   
  
He didn't see the huge smile plastered on Jack's face at the hearing of those words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, bla bla bla, tell me what you think, bla bla bla. I really hope this was good enough for you guys!


End file.
